Chapter 3: The Boardroom Ambush**
By 8:00 AM, the 50th floor of the Vance Global Tower was a war zone of hushed panic. Mauricio sat at the far end of the mahogany conference table, his tie askew, smelling of espresso and desperation. Surrounding him were three senior board members he had bribed with inflated stock options over the past two years.
"He can’t just fire me without a two-thirds majority board vote," Mauricio hissed, slapping a thick folder onto the table. "Our bylaws are ironclad. If Leo tries to purge executive leadership, the board can declare him erratic and activate the interim CEO protocol."
"You better be damn sure, Mauricio," whispered Arthur Sterling, the oldest director on the board. "Leo owns fifty-one percent of the voting shares."
"Fifty-one percent on paper," Mauricio sneered, his confidence clawing its way back. "Unless we leverage the morality clause. He impersonated a gig-worker, harassed company clients, and endangered enterprise PR. We leak the story to Bloomberg, tank the stock five points, and force a restructuring."
The double frosted-glass doors swung open.
Leo walked in. He wasn't wearing a thousand-dollar Armani suit. He wore dark denim, clean leather boots, and a simple black crewneck sweater. Behind him walked Sarah Lin, the chief internal auditor and the one woman in the company whose integrity couldn't be bought.
The room froze.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Leo said, pulling out the chair at the head of the table. He didn't sit; he rested both hands on the leather backrest. "I see everyone made it despite the weather."
Mauricio stood up abruptly, puffing his chest. "Leo, we need to talk about proper corporate governance. You can't ambush my private residence and threaten executive personnel—"
"Your residence?" Leo smiled faintly, pulling a thumb drive from his pocket and tossing it to Sarah. "Sarah, pull up screen four."
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The 98-inch wall monitor flickered to life, displaying hundreds of line items highlighting systematic embezzlement, ghost invoices, and offshore shell companies registered in the Cayman Islands—all stamped with Mauricio’s personal digital signature.
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